Preparations Begin In Case Of Government Shutdown
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
Members of the state`s finance department
are frantically sifting through the state constitution and court
decisions to figure out what state offices must be funded if the
Arkansas Supreme Court orders a government shutdown in the school
funding case.
Governor Huckabee has ordered state agencies to advise him by
next Tuesday of requirements for providing absolute bare bone
service to protect public safety.
The Legislature didn`t come up with a funding program for
schools by January 1 that met with a Supreme Court order from
November 2002, so Bill Lewellen, a lawyer in the school-funding
case, asked the court to close all but constitutionally mandated
services of the government.
Finance director Richard Weiss said he and department lawyers
were trying to compile a list of necessary services by the
governor`s deadline.
Weiss noted that some say the state has enough money in other
departments to properly fund education.
Posted by Mike Hellgren
